Arrests over Turkey Bible publisher murders

Published: 16 April 2007

Turkish police have arrested ten young men as suspects in the throat
slitting murders of three people at a Protestant Bible publishing house.

Agence
France-Presse reports that the murders raised fears and concerns over
religious freedom among Turkey's tiny Christian community in the mainly
Muslim country which is also seeking to join the European Union.

The
victims, one of them a German, were found tied to chairs with their
throats slit at the Zirve (Summit) publishing house, which is owned by
Turkey's Protestant community.

Five suspects, including a man
who jumped out of a third floor window to escape capture, were detained
at the scene of the crime.

Announcing the arrest of the other
five, Malatya Governor Halil Ibrahim Dasoz gave no details, but said
they were all of the same age group - young men aged 19 and 20.

Turkish
newspapers said all the suspects apprehended at the scene were carrying
copies of a letter that read: "We did it for our country. They are
trying to take our country away, take our religion away."

They lived together at a local dormitory run by a religious foundation, media reports said.

Police
have yet to make a statement on the motives for the murders, but the
press agreed today that nationalist and religious zeal were the likely
cause.

"We did not do this for ourselves, but for our
religion... Let this be a lesson to the enemies of our religion," one
of the suspects allegedly said in his testimony, the mass-circulation
daily Hurriyet reported.

Several newspapers linked the
attack to others against Christian minorities in Turkey, including the
killings of Catholic priest Andrea Santoro last year and ethnic
Armenian journalist Hrant Dink in January.

Turkish Foreign
Minister Abdullah Gul described the murders as "an attack against
Turkey's stability, peace and tradition of tolerance".

Speaking
to reporters in the southeastern city of Diyarbakir, European
Parliament member Joost Lagendijk said the killings would send Europe a
negative message.

"Europe will perceive the killings to mean
that those who attempt to seek converts to other faiths in Turkey will
face a similar fate," Mr Lagendijk said.

The dead were identified named as 46-year-old German Tilman Geske and Turkish nationals Necati Aydin and Ugur Yuksel.